Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, is now the second person to accuse Coldplay of plagiarism. Previously, guitarist Joe Satriani claimed that the band's song, Viva La Vida, borrowed from his 2004 track If I Could Fly.However, the most recent copyright claim will be embarrassing for Satriani, because Islam's song, Foreigner Suite, was released in 1973 – more than 30 years before his.

But leaving aside whether anybody will end up with the contents of Chris Martin's wallet, isn't there something belittling about all of this for the songwriters?

Granted, it must must distressing to an artist if someone else is profiting from a tune you believe you created. But ultimately, shouldn't a song be allowed to exist on its own merit? As the cliche goes: talent borrows, genius steals – and pop music has always been a den of thieves.

Accusations of plagiarism in the music business are nothing new – George Harrison had to pay $587,000 to the writers of He's So Fine because My Sweet Lord so closely resembled it. Harrison claimed he had cryptomnesia – a fabulous word for stealing others' ideas while believing they are your own.

Arguably this is what Radiohead suffered from when they wrote Creep. I was working for a record company at the time and was in a meeting with the band's management when I innocently commented on the lovely melodic reference to the Hollies' Air That I Breathe. They claimed not to have noticed, but eventually writers Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood did and were given songwriting credits in the liner notes to the Pablo Honey album.

But surely both Creep and Air That I Breathe are great songs? As is He's So Fine and My Sweet Lord – indeed the Chiffons even went on to record Harrison's song (voted one of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time) once the court case had been settled.

There are many more examples of songs happily co-existing without writers resorting to litigation. Most people have noticed that the best bit of U2's Beautiful Day ("Touch me!") is both lyrically and musically identical to A-Ha's The Sun Always Shines On TV but Morten Harket and co have graciously allowed U2 to carry on making money out of it. Nor has Prince made any complaints about La Roux's recent hit Quicksand, which even the writers have admitted takes its tune from the Purple One's When Doves Cry.

But maybe the most successful pop heist was committed in 1965 by Bob Dylan when he stole the melody to the Beatles' Norwegian Wood in 4th Time Around. Or at least that's what John Lennon repeatedly claimed in interviews. But crucially, he never sued and both songs have continued to successfully co-exist. And that's surely in the spirit of popular music, which is, after all, folk music – it belongs to everyone. Or am I turning into an old hippy?